Litigious former Aspen resident charged with stalking

Jan 13, 2020

A former Aspen resident with a history of harassing area residents, filing frivolous lawsuits and violating restraining orders filed against her was in Pitkin County District Court again Monday, this time accused of felony stalking.

Jan Hamilton, 78, now of Washington, D.C., was extradited to Aspen from there Friday to face the stalking charge and three other misdemeanor charges accusing her of violating restraining orders filed against her, according to court documents.

The stalking charge and two of the restraining order violations involve an Aspen resident, who Hamilton has been forbidden from contacting since 2008, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in December. Despite that still-active restraining order, Hamilton allegedly sent the resident more than 250 emails since February, sent packages to her home and repeatedly called both her cell and landlines, according to the affidavit.

That victim is “very anxious about Hamilton returning to the area and particularly anxious about Hamilton being able to bond out,” according to the warrant written by Jeff Fain, an investigator for the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and a former Aspen police officer and detective.

“(The victim) stated that the thought of Hamilton ‘coming here and showing up at the house scares me to death,’” Fain wrote in the affidavit. “(The victim) has suffered significantly mentally and financially because of Hamilton and her outright refusal to recognize the restraining order issued in 2008.”

Nonetheless, District Judge Chris Seldin allowed Hamilton out of jail Monday, setting a $10,000 personal recognizance bond in each of the four new cases against Hamilton as well as four other cases pending against her that include two counts of harassment. Seldin ordered Hamilton to return to Washington, D.C., and not violate the restraining orders.

In 2011, a District Court judge banned Hamilton from filing any more lawsuits after finding that the 61 cases she filed in Pitkin County between 2005 and 2011 were “baseless,” “frivolous” and “vexatious.” She accused a different District Court judge of attempted murder in 2015 and has filed numerous lawsuits against an Aspen church that banned her and those who attend it.

Hamilton has previously been arrested in Aspen for stalking, criminal attempt of extortion and false reporting and was evicted three times from area housing, including from a senior affordable housing complex.

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